Thursday, April 27, 2006

Been in El Salvador now for two days and I think I’m finally getting adjusted to the heat, traffic and humidity. It’s hot down here, Africa hot, Abu Dahbi hot. Lance and I had taken the red eye down from SFO, got picked up at the airport and headed straight to the Hotel Indes, got our bikes together, and promptly settled into sleepytime. We were wrecked. Poor Lance was stuck in the middle seat and got very little shut eye on the flight, whereas my head was pressed into the window, high on Tylenol PM. I woke up when the plane hit the hot tarmac, a river of saliva dripping down the glass.

We met up with the other team members Dave Somerville had put together for the trip and we headed out for a ride soon thereafter. The sun was out but there were some good looking thunderheads forming up. We all had our pictures snapped by the local paper and then headed out into the countryside for some spin time. We ended up riding close to 5 hours. Now, usually, I’m all for it, but straight off the plane into the heat of Central America, up and down hills all day wasn’t my cup of tea. Once again I flatted, which pissed me off and set the number at 4 flats in this country, this year and last combined. Annoying. But the legs came around and I felt better when we were heading home than when I did when we started. Back to the hotel as the sun was setting, some quick dinner and I was out like a light. 10 hours of sleep will do the body right.

Woke up on Wednesday a little confused as to why my arms and legs were suddenly tan and why I was famished. I could’ve eaten the ass end of a camel I was that hungry. I stole some of D.S.’s oatmeal, made some coffee and got the bike ready to ride. We headed down the hill (which is in all directions as we are staying on the side of a volcano) and I plowed into a hole in the road as large as Texas, pinch flatting my brand new front Schwalbe tire. Flat number 5!

A quick change and we were once again rolling in the heat of the day. I had a coating of diesel fumes, sweat, dust and grime. My chamois was soaked through and I had a line of dirt ringing the tops of my socks from the sweat dripping down the fronts of my legs and collecting whatever was coating them. We stopped for some water and snacks then headed up to El Boqueron, the volcano that we’d be racing up on later in the race. Supposedly it was 13% for 13 kilometers, so I thought, in my infinite wisdom, that a 23 would cut it- how bad could it be? Well, at one point I was doing 6 kph. I swear a saw a cockroach walking up the hill faster than I was riding up. There was a tailwind, so there was really no respite from the heat that was radiating off the asphalt, my head and my legs. I took off my Styrofoam cup that was protecting my melon, but that really didn’t do anything. Now the sweat was running straight into my eyes instead of getting diverted by the pads. We eventually made it to the top, after stopping once for Cokes, got another ton of snacks that cost a whopping 2 dollars (I’m talking 3 pounds of snacks) and headed back down at 60 miles an hour, straight down the hill, made a left and went right to the hotel where I took a shower that was icy and then passed out in my towel.

The boys had gone to the store, internet café and mall for dinner, but they sent back Hugh and our team director Noah to come and get me so I could eat. We were also taking Andy Randell and Miriam from the Canadian team Symetrics so that they could grab some food and supplies as they were stuck at the hotel with no way to get around. We found the food court, which made it a proper mall, a la ‘Mall Rats’, and got some good El Salvadorian Chinese food. We ate, we chatted and then we went back to the Indes for some shut eye. On our way back we stopped at a gas station for some water and the newspaper which carried a huge article on the Champion Systems team with a full color photo of all of us. A good start so far…